


Nott and Knots

by ConcentratedMatter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 12:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13613598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConcentratedMatter/pseuds/ConcentratedMatter
Summary: Based on an anonymous Tumblr prompt:Jester brushes Nott's hair during a sleepover.





	Nott and Knots

**Author's Note:**

> This was written based on an anonymous prompt. I had planned on writing a drabble. But this turned into something quite a bit longer than a drabble!  
>   
> Hope you enjoy.

Nott eyed Jester carefully from her side of the bed as the Tiefling removed her silver earring and slipped off the pretty, dangling chain connecting the jewelry to her left horn. She set them aside on the small, oak nightstand and then rummaged through her pack while humming a little tune under her breath. Jester was always humming tunes or singing songs. Nott didn’t mind much, but it was not a habit she fully understood. She had personally found it was often much more beneficial to keep quiet and fully aware of her surroundings. Sometimes however, in moments like this one, she had to admit the peaceful sound of Jester’s melodies could be quite nice.

 

Nott had been observing the Tiefling for a little while now, trying to understand all these strange, little nightly rituals she displayed. While Nott herself had flopped on the bed almost immediately after entering the room, Jester had taken quite her time about it. First she had taken the ceramic water pitcher from the nightstand, and had used it to fill the matching ceramic basin it had been standing in. She had then proceeded to thoroughly clean her face before scrubbing it dry with a white handkerchief. Afterwards, she had removed her shoes, cloak and most of her clothes until only her undergarments were left. Following some rummaging through her backpack, she had taken out a nice, flowy cotton gown and put it on, carefully buttoning up the front. This Nott didn’t much understand either; such a type of garment wasn’t nearly enough to keep her warm most nights, surely?

 

Now, after removing all her jewelry, Jester pulled out a small, shiny object from her pack. It was some type of fancy metal, with small, shimmering inlays of white. Nott quickly recognized it; it was a comb. She had seen them before. Some of them had been simple, wooden things a farmer’s daughter might carry, but some of them had been pretty and small like this one; delicate and beautiful, used by mothers to carefully brush their children’s hair behind the large windows of those tall, stone houses in the richer parts of the city. Nott had thought they’d seem very pretty, walking past, observing people from the corner of her eyes behind her little porcelain mask. Such small, shiny things would look quite nice in her collection.

Jester shook her hair loose on the left side of her face and then carefully started to comb it. The small teeth flowed easily through her blue, shining locks and the process seemed to take no effort at all. When she turned her head in order to comb the other side of her hair, she caught Nott frowning at her. A dazzling smile appeared on her face as she stopped the process to lean forward towards her smaller companion.

 

“Oh, Nott! You like my little comb? It’s very pretty, no?” She held it out towards Nott, invitingly. The shiny metal caught the glint of the candle light and glimmered in a very appealing way. Nott hesitated, but then carefully took the comb from her. In her small, green hands she turned it over and over to look at all the little details. She could see now that the little white inlays were supposed to be tiny birds, but the material somehow shimmered with a million colours. Mother-of-pearl?

 

She gasped, impressed. “This is very nice!”

 

Jester, still smiling, got up to sit next to her on the bed. She took the comb back and traced some of the inlays with her thumb.

 

“I knew you’d like it. I like it too!” Jester said, but then got a little more serious as she looked at Nott carefully. “It’s quite special to me, though, so I can’t give it to you, okay?”

 

Although slightly disappointed, Nott got the underlying message and flashed a quick, nervous, toothy grin at the Tiefling. “I understand, don’t worry!” She looked down at her hands, plucking small bits of fluff off the blanket she was sitting on. She hoped Jester understood she wouldn’t think of taking it from her. That she wouldn’t just take things from a friend.

 

Jester brightened up and leaned back. “But you can borrow it anytime you want, you know, if you want to use it!”

 

“Use it?” Not asked, confused, looking back up at her.

 

“Yeah! I don’t think you have one, right?” Jester clarified cheerfully as she continued combing her hair. “So, you can use mine if you’d like.”

 

Nott nodded hesitantly. “O-kay… Yes, of course. Sure!” Temporarily having a pretty thing was worse than not having it at all, she thought. What would be the point?

 

Jester studied Nott for a bit, perhaps noting her apprehension, and she slowed down her combing movements. She looked the little goblin over, and Nott plucked at the blanket some more, uncomfortable with the scrutiny.

 

“Nott?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Have you ever, eh, combed your hair before?” Jester sounded a little hesitant, although Nott didn’t understand why.

 

“No...” Nott eyed the comb in Jester’s hand suspiciously. “I mean, with my clan, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a comb there before, or anything,” She thought a little, “and even after I got out among all those human folk I never much understood why they use them anyway? I mean, sure some combs look pretty and I’d like to have one, you know, for my _collection_ … but like, Caleb _never_ combs his hair and if he doesn’t then it must not be that important, right?”

 

Jester seemed to take a moment to choose her words carefully. “Well, I think some people use them because it can make them feel pretty. But… most of all, I think people comb their hair because it’s makes it easier to handle.”

 

Not frowned. “What’s to handle? Hair’s hair. It doesn’t _do_ anything.”

 

“Sure, but…” Jester hesitated and then held out the comb again, pointing at the individual teeth. “Look, see? A comb separates all the different strands of your hair, yes? That way it can prevent your hair from getting all knotted or clumping together. It makes it easier to do stuff with, like if you want to gather it up and hide it under your hood, or if you want to tie it all back?” She mimed pulling her hair back. Nott nodded slowly.

 

“If you comb it regularly it is easy to handle, and it also feels quite nice! Like your hair is free to do what it wants to do… Nothing holding it back!” She shook her head quickly from left to right, letting out a joyful, melodious laugh while her hair sprang free from side to side like a little, blue whirlwind.

 

“Oh, okay. Sounds like a whole lot of effort though, if you ask me!” Nott said simply, still slightly confused.

 

Jester stopped her hair tossing and held the comb up high, leaning closer with a grin. She stopped herself before reaching Nott, however, looking thoughtful. “You know, Caleb doesn’t know everything,” she started.

 

“Caleb knows _a lot_ though. He’s very smart.” Nott interrupted, nodding to herself.

 

“He knows a lot. But not _everything_.” Jester replied, teasing in her voice. “And one thing he doesn’t know about is the power of the comb, but perhaps he should.” She looked at Nott, sincerity in her eyes.

 

“If you want I could comb your hair for you. Show you how it’s done, yes?” Jester beamed a smile at her to try to put Nott at ease. “If you like it, well great! Perhaps you can even show Caleb, hm? And if not… well, no harm done, we’ll never do it again!”

 

Nott shrank back a little, not entirely convinced. “Well…” She eyed the comb again. It was small. And pretty. How much harm could it really do? “Ehm, does it… hurt?”

 

Jester sat up quickly. “Oh, no!” She took another quick look at Nott’s tangled, long green hair and briefly hesitated. “Well, it shouldn’t if we’re being careful, and I’m _very_ careful!” She flashed a big grin, and Nott looked doubtful.

 

“Look, if you don’t like it you can just tell me to stop and I’ll stop, yes? Easy.” Jester nodded at her. “Or if you don’t like me doing it, after I show you how, you can do it yourself if you want!”

 

That didn’t seem to sound too bad, Nott supposed.

 

“…Okay.” She looked nervously at Jester as the Tiefling continued grinning and sat down behind her, comb at the ready. “I still think it’s weird.”

 

“That’s okay!” Jester replied cheerfully. “Sometimes I think you guys are weird too!” And she put her hand in the Goblin’s hair. Nott shrunk back a little, but then slowly relaxed as she felt Jester’s fingers brush through her hair in search of the biggest knots and problem areas. It felt weird to have someone touch her head like this, a bit alarming.

 

Slowly Jester starting combing through her hair, holding small parts of if in between het left fingers while combing with her right, working from the bottom upwards. Nott could sometimes feel quite the pressure when the Tiefling had to make some effort to comb through particularly tricky knots, but just like Jester had promised, she was careful and it somehow didn’t hurt at all.

 

After a while Nott didn’t feel alarmed anymore, and the two of them fell in a quiet rhythm. Jester started humming a slow melody again, this time one that sounded slightly wistful in contrast with her usual happy tunes, and Nott felt a soft calm wash over her. She closed her eyes. This was kind of nice…

 

It was a strangely intimate act, she thought. To let in someone so close. To let one’s guard down like this. She thought back to those fancy human houses, with their fancy inhabitants and all those fancy combs. Did those children feel like this when their mothers brushed their hair for them?

Safe?

 

She smiled.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning she found Caleb downstairs at one of the tables, eating a breakfast of bacon and barley bread, already engrossed in one of his books. She had her hood up and her little mask on in order to not arouse suspicion from the other inn guests, but green hair poked out from under her hood, all brushed to the left side. Green hair that was a little wavy, but somewhat shinier than normal, falling easily in a small bundle on her shoulder. She had spent quite some time yesterday evening and part of this morning just slowly brushing her hands through her hair; her sharp nails had not once caught on any knots! It had felt so liberating.

 

“Good morning, Caleb!” She greeted her friend excitedly, smiling underneath her mask. Her eyes sparkled.

 

Caleb briefly looked up at her. “Morning, Nott.” He returned, and then looked back at his book. “You sleep all right, sharing a room with that Jester?”

 

“Oh yes!” Nott replied, and moved her head side to side, letting her hair bounce a bit. “And you?”

 

“It was fine.” Caleb flashed her a brief smile, took a bite of his bread and continued to read. She knew her Goblin hair wasn’t nearly as nice as that of Jester’s or even Yasha’s; the thinness of her green locks meant there wasn’t much volume to it at all. But she tried to make Caleb notice it, nonetheless.

 

Caleb didn’t.

 

Fjord and Beau sat down opposite of them, both giving them brief greetings. Beau seemed still half asleep, not much paying attention to her, and Fjord ordered them some drinks and breakfast when the innkeeper walked past and asked if she could get them anything. While ordering, Fjord gave Nott a quick questioning look, and she returned a short nod in reply. He nodded and added a beer to the request, and the innkeeper left.

Nott noticed how Beau had become quickly distracted trying to figure out what book Caleb was reading, not paying attention to her, and she pouted a little. She saw Jester approaching from behind Fjord, just as he turned back around and gave Nott another look. Right when Jester reached their table, the Half-Orc flashed a smile at her.

 

“That looks nice, Nott.”

 

Nott, pleasantly surprised, beamed up at him. “Thanks!” She shot another quick look at Caleb, who was seemingly oblivious to their conversation.

 

“Don’t worry, Nott.” Jester whispered, sitting down next to Fjord, mischief in her voice as she followed the goblin’s gaze at Caleb. Underneath the table, the Tiefling found Nott’s hands and pressed a small, familiar object in them. Nott’s eyes grew wide. Jester winked at her and smiled.

 

“Like I said; now it’s your job to teach him!”

  



End file.
